Pages

Saturday, 13 November 2010

Strictly Come Dancing week 7: Last Chance for Blackpool

Ordinarily, this is always my favourite part of the competition. Not quite half way through, and the dancers left are all top flight or mid table at worst. Every effort is getting every last bit of torque out of the engine. Tonight we saw some Mercedes S class, a dose of Jag and a lovely racing green Astin Martin crossed with a bit of Toyota Hilux , then came the fleet of Ford Mondeos, reliable but not spectacular and lastly ..... the clapped out bug that tried and the Morris Marina most of us want to drop a piano on. Yes I'm missing Top Gear. Other than the pepto bismal pink elephant in the room, most efforts were what you'd expect from a field who know it's about to get a lot harder.

This week's judging reminded of the time we had a reunion and we ignored the annoying cousin who wanted attention, some were polite, some gave up and yet others suffered through the moment. I'm as of this week ignoring the clown princess of panto and will no longer post any news of her or her video clips. I will not dignify her announcement s of what's up in two weeks or how she's proud that she does comedy, from now on she does not exist . If you want cheap thrills, watch x factor or I need my face on telly ,let me into the jungle. Every body else still gets a write up though. Brucie was on top form even if people were anticipating the punchlines, almost cathartic at times. I suspect behind the scenes thing are getting a bit hairy as couples are putting the real effort into the next few weeks. With fingers crossed that things get better and a song in my heart , here are the ratings for this week's dancing.

Pamela Stevenson: Cha Cha Cha. Dancing to "Money", Pamela was a bit tentative trying to insure the proper execution of her routine elements. With a bit more fluidity, it would have been perfect. Not bad on the whole, considering her past performance, I was expecting more. Rating 7

Michelle Williams: Paso Doble. Dancing to American Woman, a song I'm sure Burton Cummings never imagined could be danced to the Paso Doble, Michelle stomped her way through a tacky disjointed routine in which she lost her balance several times. Rating 4

Patsy Kensit: Viennese waltz . Opening with some moves straight out of the Gavotte, Patsy posed a bit then started to dance, losing her spot half way through, only to recover. When she was good, she was classy and confident. Even with the mistakes, still a good routine that entertained some. Rating 7

Gavin Henson: Foxtrot. Welllllll, talk about going for broke. Gavin kissed Len then went on to dance half the time and clown around the rest . His partner choreographed around his limitations, disguising them as story telling breaks that fooled no one then eased into dance again where he genuinely did try to dance. Quick word Gavin, no one likes a twat, and you were one last week, Don't for a minute think you're really better than Matt Baker or Scot. But thanks for trying at least. Bury the attitude and maybe I'll take you seriously. Rating 6

Ann Widdicombe: Here are some facts you should remember.1- She would not become Health Secretaryas long as this involved responsibility for abortions, under any circumstances.2- She converted to Catholocism when the C of E ordained women3- Out of the 17 parliamentary votes considered by the Public Whip website to concern equal rights for homosexuals, Widdecombe took the opposing position in 15 cases, not being present at the other two votes4- in 2009 said that "There is no climate change, hasn’t anybody looked out of their window recently?"5-In 1996 Widdecombe as prisons minister defended the Government's policy to shackle pregnant women with handcuffs and chains when in hospital. Widdecombe told the Commons the restrictions were needed to prevent prisoners from escaping.6-And of course she writes a column for the Daily Scum. A newspaper better known for stirring things up than news. Her Victims include for now. Tina O'Brien, Jimi Mistry, Rating -5

Kara Tointon: Tango. It was LUSH, it was BEAUTIFUL, it was PROFESSIONAL it was PERFECT. Footwork, hip action, musicality, and grace. Worth having had to sit through the pink hippo to see this. Rating 10 video

Felicity Kendal: Salsa. Graceful , fluid a bit impish, Not Kara but good. Complicated arm work had her loose her rhythm a bit, but still impressive. Rating 7

Matt Baker: Rumba. Not good.... A tad jerky, not as much dance as usual and more focused on playing raunchy , which he did in spades. Compared to the his best, fair to middling, compared to the bad dancers still in this, light years ahead. In a just world he should not be in any trouble. Rating 8

Scott Maslen: Jive. SssssssssCoooooootT! Brilliant story telling, plenty of energy, great footwork, was even left alone to do some solo work. Such rhythm, such professionalism. For a second I thought I was watching Gene Kelly. Rating 10 video

So in summary, the bottom two according to the table and myself were Michelle Williams and Ann Widdicombe. Will Ann get to Dance in Blackpool? Only the Gods know for sure. But I can tell you one thing, if she costs another good dancer a spot, ratings among genuine dance fans will plummet. Let's all gather round the goggle box tomorrow night and see what happens. Fingers crossed people. I will however not allow myself to worry too much now, as it's clear the show runners don't care what dance fans think.

Nice American smooth and as per usual the Chippendales came out for a run on the dance floor. What about the men hey???? Give us some women in skimpy outfits please!!!!. Nice song by Annie Lennox and Alesha final does the one thing she's qualified for, that's sing.

And so we have it .....In no particular order, which of course means you're dead last in the drop zone Luv but still safe, Ann Widdicombe , Michelle Williams and Felicity Kendal. First two fair enough, but Felicity was good enough to be still in it and if anything, Gavin still deserves to be at the bottom. Quoting the the great Craig Revell Horwood, it's time Ann "On y va'd !" . Michelle Williams being a fair choice for the chop, she does 4th time unlucky, or fair which ever way you look at it, Michelle goes home. I wish her luck and dub her a good sport. One hopes the next elimination is a Tory or a Welsh rugby player, but we all know short of a revolt by the judges and or an intervention by the BBC, a horde of panting women will keep Gavin in and Ann will get by on the votes of drunken text yobs who think it's funny ruining a dance show. That's me done for tonight.. Next week Blackpool abd hopefully some truly spectacular dancing and loads of 10's

3 comments:

What an outrageously biased horrible write up for Ann Widdicombe! I, along with many other people happen to agree with how she voted when in power... So she will still get my vote!But I must say, what did that write up have to do with Ann & Antons dancing??? I cannot see any mention of political views in the reviews for other dancers (even though they must have them) and I can see no mention of the effort that Ann has made to learn new dancing steps & routines (which she obviously has). Please replace the person who wrote this dreadful review column... there are lots of people who would love to be paid for the privilege of writing about our celebrity dancers and I'm sure they would do a far better job of it!

Dear Potter, I thought that if people had started voting strictly on popularity, it was time to inject some reality of just how lovable this woman really is. The rest of them dance,even Gavin sort of, but Ann Widdicombe and now even Anton DuBeck have turned this into a farce, even taunting the good dancers with future horrid spectacles. You say she made an effort? To what, look less like my old Gran at a wedding? This is called Strictly Come Dancing, if you wish to vote for her record in the House of Commons then by all means do so at the ballot box, it's your right, but not here in a dance competition. As it stands,we'll likely see an excellent dancer leave on Sunday because of people who vote like you. PS I get paid by the BBC as much for writing this as you do for reading this.

My husband and I will not be watching Strictly next week as Ann Widdecombe is still on the show, although we admire her tenacity, to call what she does dancing is farcical. Especially as the other contestants have shown such improvement. At least John Sargeant had the good grace to remove himself from the show.